Innovation Shares Unveils Blockchain-Investing ETF

1/31/2018 1:24 PM ET

Innovation Shares LLC has launched the Innovation Shares NextGen Protocol ETF (KOIN), which the company claims to be the first exchange-traded fund to use artificial intelligence to identify and invest in blockchain innovators and adopters.

"Blockchain is a highly innovative technology, and we're applying an innovative approach to identifying the stocks leveraged to the theme," said Matt Markiewicz, Managing Director with Innovation Shares. "Our proprietary patent-pending AI based process allows us to better capture a full range of publicly traded companies that are developing, investing in and utilizing this new protocol."

KOIN tracks an index designed to give investors exposure to global stocks that are participating in the growth of blockchain technology, which is being applied across a number of industries.

The index underlying KOIN was constructed utilizing a natural language processing algorithm that screens for global stocks that are believed to have a current or future economic interest in blockchain technology.

Markiewicz noted that blockchain technology has applications that can potentially benefit multiple industries and new use cases are continually being discovered.